Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she makes of the potential impact of discharge from storm overflows on the quality of shellfish harvesting waters.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency will require water companies to review what action is needed in the identified 63 priority shellfish areas, whether that is improvement, prevention of deterioration or investigation. This will lead to reductions in sewage discharges from storm overflows and disinfection of treated sewage.
Where the results of monitoring indicate any event which has increased faecal contamination in an area, prompt action is taken to protect public health either by pausing harvesting or introducing additional controls on shellfish from the area.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve the quality of shellfish harvesting waters.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Shellfish harvesting waters are included in protected areas within the Environment Agency’s River Basin Management Plans. They can be affected by a number of different microbial sources like sewage discharges and agricultural land run off.
The Government is prioritising action to improve the water quality of the largest shellfish waters in England by 2030. This will require action (improvement, prevention of deterioration or investigation) at 63 shellfish waters between 2025-2030.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to take steps to compensate shellfish aquaculture businesses impacted by poor water quality.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are currently no plans to take steps to compensate shellfish aquaculture businesses impacted by poor water quality. However, the Government is prioritising action to improve the water quality of the largest shellfish waters in England by 2030. This will require action (improvement, prevention of deterioration or investigation) at 63 shellfish waters between 2025-2030.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of enabling an Ukrainian student who is taking English language exams for the first time an additional 10 per cent of time to complete their papers; and what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that those taking exams in a second language have sufficient time to complete exam papers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Many awarding organisations and qualifications, including all GCSEs, AS and A levels and those awarding them, are regulated by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). Ofqual sets the standards and rules that awarding organisations need to meet when they design, deliver and award regulated qualifications.
Ofqual’s General Conditions of Recognition (Condition G2) states that an awarding organisation must ensure that all pupils taking its qualifications in England are assessed in English, except where use of another language is permitted, for example, because it is one of the primary objectives of the qualification for the pupil to gain knowledge of, skills in, and understanding of that language. The full list of General Conditions is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ofqual-handbook/section-g-setting-and-delivering-the-assessment.
Access arrangements may be appropriate for pupils with limited fluency in English, for example, the use of a bilingual dictionary. Applications for access arrangements are approved by awarding organisations ahead of the examination or assessment. The Joint Council for Qualification’s Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments regulations sets out the assessment criteria and evidence required for different types of arrangements which examination centres can apply for on behalf of a pupil. The regulations are available at: https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AA_regs_22-23_May23_revision_FINAL.pdf.
Schools and colleges are responsible for deciding which qualifications they enter pupils for, based on what is in their best interests. Schools will want to carefully consider the individual circumstances of pupils before deciding the appropriateness of an examination entry and will make these decisions on a case-by-case basis. Schools and colleges should also contact the relevant awarding organisation(s) to discuss the arrangements that may be suitable for individual pupils.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps the Government are taking to facilitate the domestic use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil; and when he expects home owners to be able to convert existing fossil fuel and kerosene oil to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil for domestic use.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government expects heat pumps will be the primary technology for decarbonising off-grid buildings. The Government recognises that not all off-grid properties will be suitable for a heat pump and there will be a role for alternative low carbon technologies where heat pumps cannot be used.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing bus fares for students between the ages of 16 and 19.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
In England, the majority of bus services outside London operate on a commercial basis, and decisions about offering reduced or discounted fares for commercial bus services are predominantly for operators to take. Many bus operators currently offer discounted travel cards for younger people. Our most recent set of statistics shows that operators in 70 out of 84 travel concession authority areas in England, outside London, offered some form of discounted travel for young people.
Policy for home to school transport sits with the Department for Education. However, the statutory responsibility for transport to education and training for those aged 16 to 19 rests with local authorities. This enables them to make reasonable decisions based on the needs of their population, the local transport infrastructure and the resources they have available
The Government introduced the £2 fare cap on 1 January to help passengers save on their regular travel costs and to help increase patronage on buses. This scheme was due to end on 30 June, however on 17 May we announced a further investment of up to £200 million to extend the current £2 bus fare cap in place on single tickets 1 July until 31 October. This will be followed by a longer term fare cap of £2.50 from 1 November 2023 to 31 November 2024
We are also investing in the bus sector to deliver the ambitions of the National Bus Strategy to make bus services more reliable and cheaper. We have allocated over £1 billion of funding for English Local Transport Authorities outside London to support the delivery of Bus Service Improvement Plans, some of which include the introduction of measures to reduce bus fares for young people. For example, the North East have recently introduced a £1 fare for single bus journeys for the under 22s.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to the Overseas Registration Exam for Non-European Economic Area nationals wanting to practice dentistry in the UK.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have recently introduced legislation that enables the General Dental Council (GDC) to increase the capacity of its Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) and improve its international registration processes. It will be for the GDC, as an independent regulator, to decide how best to use the flexibility that the legislation allows to increase the capacity of the ORE assessment.
The current legal framework for the ORE will remain in place until the GDC introduces new rules on the operation of the ORE 12 months after the legislation comes into force, in March 2024. In the meantime, the GDC has announced that it has tripled the number places for Part 1 of the ORE in response to the current demand, meaning there will be 600 places available for the August 2023 sitting of the ORE Part 1, instead of the usual 200.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which African nations have expressed support for the UK Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Hunting Trophies Bill has now completed its passage through the House of Commons, meaning that we are one step closer to delivering the commitment we made in our manifesto. I am grateful to the governments of all the countries that have engaged with Defra on this issue, including during the consultation and call for evidence and throughout the development of policy and legislation. Partners have given a range of views, in particular on the potential costs, benefits and impacts of the policy options considered.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including the public leisure sector in the Energy and Trade Intensive Industries scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme review assessed a range of qualitative and quantitative evidence and contributions from businesses and other stakeholders, on sectors that may be most affected by price increase based on energy and trade intensity (ETII). The public leisure sector does not fall within the trade intensive category and therefore not included in the ETII scheme.
However, and recognising the vital role that swimming pools and leisure facilities play in our communities, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced in the budget additional funding of over £60 million for public swimming pool providers to help with immediate cost pressures and make facilities more energy efficient.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has been made of the potential merits of using shellfish aquaculture as a means of carbon sequestration in UK waters.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2022 Defra commissioned at 3 year, £200k project to understand better the carbon sequestration potential of seaweed and bivalve aquaculture in English waters. This project is due to complete in Spring 2025, after which a final report will be published.